CHRIST OF THE “YES”
2 CORINTHIANS 1:1-24
The Christian Life has often been described in negative terms. We know much more of what we should not do rather than what we should. Even the positive, like righteousness, is seen in terms that are negative: don’t this, don’t that. As such we are often hard put to hold up our own life as a Christian as an example of the abundance of life.
Paul went through a very negative experience: “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself” but his worldview gave him a positive perspective even in such dire circumstances. “If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.” In fact he even viewed his problems as opportunity for the Christian brethren to pray and to be encouraged when God answers their prayers. “Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”
For Paul the Christian life is not about undergoing great trials and pain for God’s glory; God’s glory is in his compassion, the comfort he bestows, the victory in deliverance, the triumph over death, the vindication of our faith, the consistent expression of his faithfulness.
The Christian life is about experiencing the power of Christ in whom all the promises of God are unleashed. “I hope that, as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.” As each walks with the Lord in their own paths, each will have victories to boast of when he comes.
Clearly it is not about living in sunshine and walking among roses, as Paul’s own life demonstrates. During the Roman persecution thousands of Christians died. Paul tells his audience, and he tells us, even in the worst of circumstances the power of Christ can wrest victory from the jaws of defeat as he demonstrated when his own death defeated the power of evil.
Why is Paul so confident? “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” Because God is at the beginning and the end.
The question that God asks us in our text this morning is this: Are you living in the fullest enjoyment of God's YES to you in Christ Jesus? Or to put it another way: Have you said yes to all of God's YES to you? Is there any of God's YES to you to which you are saying NO or MAYBE or NOT NOW? Let our consecration to God … be this: This is the decade of my YES to you, O God. I consecrate myself to forsake the NO and the MAYBE and the NOT NOW of my unbelief. And I say YES to everything in your YES to me. John Piper.
As Christians we have to be optimists because our Lord is the Christ of the “Yes”. We have to choose life, and choose to live, with all that enriches living, because our Lord is the Christ of the “Yes”.
“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”